Tag Archives: WDC

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 19 November

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The price of petrol could drop by 69 – 72 cents per liter on 3 December, the Automobile Association has forecast.  The declining international oil prices will benefit motorists.  ‘Petroleum prices have dropped by more than ten percent over the past 15 days and the exchange rate has weakened only slightly in the same period‘.

*   The organisers of World Design Capital (WDC) 2014 have condemned the vandalisation with graffiti of the ‘Perceptions’ Ray-Ban glasses sculpture on the Sea Point Promenade.   The art work has generated a huge debate about its suitability in its perceived commercialisation, by promoting the glasses brand.  The organisers said: ‘As WDC 2014, we condone creativity and condemn in the strictest sense, lawlessness. It is a sad day when public debate is substituted with vandalism‘.

*   KWV is hosting ‘Brandy Sensations‘, a ‘long table dinner‘ to be held at the KWV Sensorium art gallery in Paarl tomorrow. Continue reading →

World Design Capital 2014: Highlights design in Cape Town Townships, no Tourism benefit sought!

Cécile and Boyd FoundationOn Friday The Guardian published a very lengthy article about Cape Town’s role as host of World Design Capital 2014 (WDC), and highlighted the unusual locations of design gems in Cape Town, including the townships and previously run-down city areas, as opposed to art galleries.  Unfortunately this is the second international article about Cape Town in two days with errors!  The article highlights what a visitor to Cape Town should see during this design-centred year, and contains shocking news for the Tourism industry.

Journalist Lisa Grainger anticipated visiting upmarket galleries, style emporiums, and seeing craft art, but instead she spent most of her week in Cape Town in townships with guide Fernie, to experience real creativity born from poverty. ‘Because it is in these townships that some of the most inspiring people live: people who are incredible, positive, engaging, brave. And I want visitors to see the good there is here, the real heart of South Africa’, he explained to her.  

She was told by Priscilla Urquhart, PR and Media Manager of Cape Town Design NPC, the company responsible for implementing World Design Capital 2014 for Cape Town, that our city’s budget (supplied by the City of Cape Town) is R 40 million, compared to close to R60 million spent by Helsinki two years ago, when that city carried the honour. Budget constraints prevented the creation of City-led design projects in Cape Town, but allowed the city’s design industry to offer its design projects for consideration, and about 450 have become official World Design Capital 2014 projects, summarised in a fold-open brochure. There is no showcase for these projects, the Design Indaba and Guild design fair having been the only two exhibitions where some of the work linked to some of the projects could be seen, unfortunately having run concurrently at the very busy end of February.

A shock is reading Urquhart admit to the journalist that ‘the WDC programme wasn’t designed to attract tourists, but to try to Continue reading →

World Design Capital 2014: Highlights for Cape Town!

Clocktower WDC 2014There has been little information about what to expect for next year when Cape Town takes over the honour of being World Design Capital (WDC) 2014, from 1 January onwards.  The theme for Cape Town is ‘Live Design, Transform Life‘.

An article in Mercedes-Benz magazine provides a short summary of the ten projects chosen by World Design Capital 2014 operating company Cape Town Design NPC  CEO Alyne Reesberg.  She is a dynamic personality, having worked as a relationship manager at Microsoft previously.  She says her vision for the important design year is to ‘make visible and tangible the many life-altering innovations that are being fostered‘ in Cape Town.  She also wants to incorporate our continent of Africa into the design discussion, and wants it to continue beyond 2014.

Reesberg believes that Cape Town’s design focus will attract more businesses to the Mother City, to offer employment to locals, and to utilise our city’s infrastructure.  She also hopes that tourists will visit next year, to also experience ‘the incredible ingenuity, know-how and capability’, which seem intangibles which will be hard for them to experience!  She would like to see the legacy of Cape Town as World Design Capital 2014  as ‘an absolute must-see for people who are interested in how design can improve citizens’ lives‘.

The ten top design projects for 2014, according to Reesberg, are the following: Continue reading →